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8 Year-End Tax-Saving Strategies for Business Owners in 2026

By |2026-10-27T16:13:26-07:00October 27, 2026|Categories: Business Taxes|Tags: , , , |0 Comments

If you own or manage a business, you’re probably spending time thinking about taxes, especially as the end of the year approaches. With 2026 drawing to a close, now is a good time to review your business finances with your CPA and consider opportunities to reduce your federal income tax liability before Dec. 31, 2026.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1) — see “What the Passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Mean for You and Your Business” here on the SWC Blog — extended several business-friendly tax provisions and expanded others. Signed into law in July 2025, these changes create opportunities to reduce taxable business income and make decisions that may benefit your business.

Here at SWC, we hate to see business owners pay more in taxes than they’re legally obligated to. That’s why we encourage our clients to schedule year-end tax projection appointments while there’s still time to make adjustments that could reduce their 2026 tax bills.

In our recently published post, “2026 Year-End Tax Checklist: 12 Ways to Save Before December 31,” we covered tax-saving strategies for individual taxpayers. In this post, we’re focusing on eight opportunities specifically for business owners and those who manage businesses, starting with retirement plan considerations.

Tip No. 1: Establish a Retirement Plan or Increase Your Contributions

If your business doesn’t already offer a retirement plan, establishing one may be among the most effective ways to reduce taxable income while helping you and your employees save for retirement. Several retirement plan options are available to businesses, and the best choice depends on your business structure and the number of employees you have.

Here are three common choices: Continue reading… Continue reading… Continue reading…

New IRS Per Diem Rates for 2026-2027: What Business Owners Should Know

By |2026-10-20T15:41:08-07:00October 20, 2026|Categories: Business Expense|Tags: |0 Comments

Business travel has returned to many companies’ schedules in the years since the health pandemic. Meanwhile, stories about flight delays and cancellations continue to remind travelers that getting from one place to another can be an adventure, if not downright challenging.

There is some welcome news on the expense side of business travel. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has released updated per diem rates for 2026-2027, giving businesses new standardized amounts to use when reimbursing employees for qualifying travel expenses.

Image of business owner with an iPhone in their hand taking a picture of a receipt with the word "New IRS Per Diem Rates for 2026-2027: What Business Owners Should Know" across the image.

The new rates took effect Oct. 1, 2026, and apply to travel expenses incurred while business owners and employees are away from their tax homes on business. For companies that regularly send employees to conferences, trade shows, client meetings, off-site training, or other business destinations, the update provides an opportunity to review travel reimbursement policies and simplify expense reporting.

What Are Per Diem Rates?

A per diem is a daily allowance used to cover certain expenses while traveling for business. Employers can use IRS-approved substantiation methods to reimburse employees for qualifying lodging costs and meals without requiring receipts for every expense covered by the allowance.

The IRS updates its special per diem rates annually to account for changes in travel costs. Under the applicable rules, businesses can use these rates to determine how much of an employee’s travel allowance is treated as substantiated for federal tax-related purposes.

For employers, a properly administered per diem arrangement can make expense reporting easier. Employees still need to document when and where they traveled, along with the business purpose of each trip, but the standardized allowance can reduce the need to collect individual receipts for expenses covered by the applicable per diem method.

The New Per Diem Rates for 2026-2027

IRS Notice 2026-60 (PDF file) establishes the following special per diem rates for the period beginning Oct. 1, 2026: Continue reading… Continue reading… Continue reading…

California Tax and Business Updates to Have on Your Radar for 2027

By |2026-10-09T13:53:55-07:00October 9, 2026|Categories: Business Taxes, California Tax Planning|Tags: , , |0 Comments
Start Here: As 2027 approaches, California taxpayers and business owners have several changes worth knowing about. New sales tax rules for digital products, a higher statewide minimum wage, updated business filing procedures, and other developments could affect the decisions you make before and after year-end.

Keeping up with California tax law can feel like a full-time job. Fortunately, most taxpayers do not need to follow every bill, court decision, or administrative update coming out of Sacramento. What matters is knowing when a change could affect your business, your tax return, your real property, or a financial decision you’re preparing to make.

With year-end tax planning underway here at SWC, we have narrowed the field to several California-related developments we believe are worth having on your radar as we head into 2027, starting with how the state is gearing up to handle sales tax on certain digital products.

 

California Is Expanding Sales Tax to Digital Products

One of the biggest changes for California businesses arrives Jan. 1, 2027. Beginning on that date, the Golden State’s sales and use tax will apply to retail sales of digital products sold in the state or purchased for use in the state. The new rules can apply whether the product is delivered on physical media and transferred electronically, or even accessed remotely.

That last category is particularly important for businesses, because the change reaches many products companies routinely purchase without thinking of them as tangible property, including certain prewritten software and software-as-a-service, commonly known as SaaS. The change could affect several parts of a business’s software purchasing process, including contracts, purchasing procedures, recordkeeping, and documentation showing where digital products are used.

What If Your Business Operates In More Than One State?

Things become even more complicated when a digital product is used by employees or other users both inside and outside California. CDTFA (California’s Department of Tax and Fee Administration) has been developing regulations addressing digital products purchased for use in multiple locations, along with rules covering sourcing, certain tax-liability thresholds, custom software, and other aspects of the new law.

The distinction between the law and those implementation rules isn’t trivial. With the state’s expansion of sales and use tax to digital products taking effect at the beginning of the year, some of the administrative details surrounding how the tax will operate are still being developed.

What You Should Do: If your business makes significant purchases of software, SaaS, cloud services, or other digital products, now is a good time to review those agreements. Businesses operating in multiple states should also consider whether their records adequately show where their digital products are actually being used.

California’s Minimum Wage Is Going Up

Beginning Jan. 1, 2027, California’s statewide minimum wage increases from Continue reading… Continue reading… Continue reading…

Why a Year-End Tax Projection Can Be One of Your Most Useful Planning Tools

By |2026-10-08T15:25:14-07:00October 1, 2026|Categories: Tax Planning|Tags: |0 Comments

In the final months of the year, you probably know much more about your financial picture than you did back in January. Your income is taking shape, business results are clearer, investment gains and losses have accumulated. Maybe a property has been bought or sold, or you have retired, changed jobs, relocated, welcomed a new family member, or experienced another financial change.

Bottom line: Your tax picture has likely been changing, and that’s what makes the dozen or so weeks leading up to Dec. 31 particularly useful for tax planning. Instead of waiting until your tax return is prepared to find out where you stand, a year-end tax projection provides an earlier look at your expected tax liability and helps identify issues or planning opportunities while the tax year is still open.

Tax Preparation Looks Back, A Tax Projection Looks Ahead

Tax return preparation and tax projections serve different purposes. When your tax return is prepared, the year has already ended. Most of the income has been earned, transactions have occurred, and end-of-year deadlines have passed. The job at that point is largely to determine how the tax rules apply to what happened during the previous year.

A year-end tax projection happens earlier. It uses information available now, together with reasonable estimates for the remainder of the year, to develop a working picture of your expected tax position. That distinction helps because knowing about a potential issue before year-end may give us time to help you evaluate your options. Discovering the same issue during tax season may simply tell you what already happened.

A Lot About Your Finances Can Change in a Year

Your prior-year tax return provides useful information, but it does not necessarily predict what will happen this year. Consider what may have changed since your last return.

Perhaps you started a new job, received a raise, accepted a bonus, or benefited from another form of compensation. You might have started or sold a business, experienced a substantial change in business income, sold real estate, or received income from a new source. Your investment portfolio, including any cryptocurrency you possess, may have generated significant gains or losses. Retirement even could have changed the Continue reading… Continue reading… Continue reading…

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